Let's make one thing perfectly clear

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Twenty-five years ago The Age began its famous "Give the
Yarra a Go" campaign. One of its six key planks was very simple:
clean up the river.

But the campaign has fallen short, certainly in the lower
reaches. The Yarra, like many of Melbourne's waterways, is dirty
and diseased.

Despite the progress since 1980, it may well be another 25
years before it is safe to swim in. Of course, cleaning up the
Yarra, as with any long urban river, is a big and costly challenge.
Every time there is a rainstorm, the river is flushed with dog
waste, litter and pollutants from gutters and creeks. Upstream,
urine and faeces from sheep and other animals is washed in. There
are still unsewered properties along its length, and sewerage pipes
can overflow.

But that has not stopped politicians from making absurd claims.
During the original Age campaign, journalist John Larkin
reflected how, in 1972, conservation minister Bill Borthwick had
forecast that by 1980 people would be swimming happily under
Princes Bridge.

In 1984, the Cain government announced a $200 million plan to
clean up the Yarra. The then planning and environment minister,
Evan Walker, said people should be able to swim "very safely" in
river's lower regions by 1989.

But in January 1991, the Liberal opposition released data
showing E.coli counts 42 times the minimum safe level.

EPA chairman Brian Robinson's response? The 1984 policy was
overly ambitious, he told The Age. "To lay down a standard
that that particular part of the river could meet within that time
was more than just ambitious," he said. "It would take a lot of
money and time to make it safe for swimming, if it could be
achieved at all."

In 2002, Dr Robinson retired from the EPA. He told The
Age the "softly-softly" approach had failed and "a bit of
two-by-four" was needed, including threats of prosecution to force
authorities to make the lower Yarra safe for swimming by 2008.

Current Government policy is to get 85 per cent of Melbourne's
waterways up to scratch by 2008, the rest by 2030. Peter Scott, of
Melbourne Water, told The Age this week that meeting the
2008 deadline would be, to put it mildly, "a challenge".

What about the 2030 target? Who knows? Fifty years after the
original campaign, people may finally be swimming under Princes
Bridge.